The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has confirmed that it has identified a case of atypical BSE in a 14-year-old cow, through its surveillance of fallen animals at knackeries.

It is understood that the animal was a suckler cow sent to a knackery facility in Co Tipperary.

The animal, which died on farm, tested positive on a screening test carried out at a Department-approved accredited private laboratory and was then subject to follow-up confirmatory tests at the Department’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory.

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“There are no associated public health risks with this event – a comprehensive set of public health controls are in place and the animal in this case was excluded from the food chain and its carcase will be incinerated,” a spokesperson for the Department told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The disclosure of this case of atypical BSE does not have any impact on Ireland’s current OIE BSE ‘controlled risk’ status or trade status.

BSE types

There are two types of BSE recognised, according to the Department of Agriculture.

  • Classical BSE, which was the basis of the extensive incidence of BSE which commenced some time in the 1980s, which was associated with the feeding of meat-and-bone meal, where scientific evidence indicates that BSE is acquired in the first year of life; and
  • Atypical BSE, which has been identified more recently and which is thought to occur spontaneously. Atypical BSE occurs sporadically in older animals with a low incidence rate. It was first recognised in the early 2000s in Europe following the large scale testing of livestock for BSE that was put in place at that time.

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    Suspected BSE case in old cow